I am working on a short essay and lack confidence in my use of tenses in some sentences. Hopefully someone can check that these are okay or help/suggest how to fix them:
1. Sus colegios estarán aquí despues de ella se haya ido. (Her colleagues will be here after she is gone.)
2. Ella tiene ambiciones y si algo no la ayudaría con sus metas, no va a hacerlo. (She has ambitions and if something does not help her with her goals, she is not going to do it.)
3. Ella pensaba que esto sería más fácil y que no necesitaría su ayuda. (She thought this would be easier and that she wouldn't need their help.)
Thank you! It is so helpful to get feedback and I do appreciate it.
1. después
2. ayuda = if something does not help her
3. pensaba = she was thinking (and perhaps had not yet made up her mind) vs pensó = she thought, did think (mind made up)
Sra
What would help you with the tenses? Would you like the English cues for various tenses? Excellent use of the Subjunctive in #1.
Thank you as always for your wonderful help.
Yes I think that the English cues would help me very much! For example, I am unsure when, for example, to use subjunctive versus a regular present. Like in #2, I can see now what you mean when I think carefully but when I first looked at it I wondered if I had triggered the subjunctive. So any hints you like to give to students would be most helpful.
The correction in #3 is very helpful to me--I should have been thinking of a limited, completed action, right, because that state of mind is gone now?
I appreciate this! It is so rewarding to me to figure out how to say something right!!!
The usual English for:
1. The Present Indicative "hablo" = I speak, I DO speak, I AM speaking (of course he DOES and he IS speakING)
2. The Preterit (completed action in the past with both a beginning and an end) "hablé = I SPOKE, I DID speak
3. The Imperfect (ongoing with a beginning, but as far as you know, no ending) yo hablaba = I USED TO speak, I WAS speakING and I SPOKE (the third meaning overlaps with the Preterit)
Preterit = / / / / (like snapshots)
Imperfect = ~ ~ ~ ~ (like movie camera)
*there are some special meanings in the Preterit. poder = I could/I managed (in Preterit = pude) BUT I was able, I used to (in the Imperfect = podía)
estar = Preterit like "I arrived" estuve but Imperfect like I was (estaba)
saber = Preterit "I found out" = supe but I knew/was knowing in Imperfect = sabía
querer = intended in Preterit (quise) but was wanting in Imperfect (quería)
(a few more but at the moment, I can only thing of 3 = I think it's a total of 5)
4. Future = hablaré = I WILL (SHALL, dying out in English) speak/talk
5. Conditional = hablar´ia = I WOULD speak/talk
6. Present Subjunctive = can sound like Present tense, future or even an infinitive = él quiere que yo salga = He wants me TO LEAVE, he wants that I leave, will leave
7. Imperfect/Past Subjunctive = can sound like Preterit/Imperfect/Past, Conditional or even an invinitive. = él quería que yo saliera/saliese = he was wanting me TO LEAVE, he wanted that I leave, left, would leave, etc.
8. Perfect Tense = haber in ANY tense plus past participle = he querido = I HAVE wanted / había querido = I HAD / wanted / habría querido = I WOULD HAVE wanted, etc.
9. Progressive Tense = estar + -ndo or gerund = estoy queriendo = I AM wantING / estaba queriendo = I WAS wanting / estará queriendo = I WILL BE wanting, etc.
That's MOST of it!
Sra
Just remembered the 5th verb with special meanings in Preterit vs Imperfect. tener = tuve = I had/grabbed in the Preterit but tenía = I had/was having, etc. in the Imperfect.
Sra
This is so wonderful--thank you so much for your generous comments here. It is so helpful to see the tenses as being cued by certain English phrases--and I am so glad to see how you describe #6 in a way I had not encountered and in a way I can process. The subjunctive seems hard because of its different English equivalents, but I think I understand now!
I really appreciate it--¡Muchisimas Gracias!
1. The tenses in sentence 1 are mostly correct, except for a minor issue with the sequence of tenses. The corrected sentence would be: "Sus colegas estarán aquí después de que ella se haya ido." (Her colleagues will be here after she has gone.) In this case, using the subjunctive tense "haya ido" correctly reflects the expectation or possibility of her leaving before her colleagues arrive.
2. Sentence 2 is grammatically correct with the use of tenses. However, there is a word order issue. The corrected sentence would be: "Ella tiene ambiciones y si algo no le ayuda con sus metas, no lo va a hacer." (She has ambitions and if something does not help her with her goals, she is not going to do it.)
3. Sentence 3 is also grammatically correct in terms of tenses. However, there is a word choice issue. The corrected sentence would be: "Ella pensaba que esto sería más fácil y que no necesitaría su ayuda." (She thought this would be easier and that she wouldn't need their help.)
Overall, your use of tenses is quite good. Just make sure to pay attention to word order and choose appropriate verb forms to convey the desired meaning. Keep up the good work!